MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Defamation and insult trial – İsmail Arı
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
İsmail Arı
CITY
İstanbul
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2025
LAST UPDATED
17/09/2025
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Print Media
Newspaper
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Journalist
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Judicial Interference
Criminal Courts
Suspension of the execution of the sentences of imprisonment
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Turkish Penal Code
Art. 125/1

6 February 2025

The Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance proceeded with the second hearing of the trial against BirGün reporter İsmail Arı on charges of “insult” (Turkish Penal Code, Article 125) and “defamation” (Article 267), filed upon the complaint of Levent Uysal, a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) MP for Mersin and founder of the Nişantaşı Education Foundation.

Arı attended the hearing together with his lawyer Tolgay Güvercin, while the complainant Uysal was represented by lawyer Ferhat Pamuk. The court accepted the complainant’s request to participate in the proceedings on the grounds of a “possibility of harm resulting from the crime.” The hearing was adjourned until 10 July 2025.